ONC Approves Strategic and Operational State HIE Plan for North Dakota

The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT has announced it had approved the Operational Plan (SOP) for a Health Information Exchange (HIE) for the State of North Dakota. The SOP developed by Tampa, Fl.-based Hielix, a provider of operationally sustainable, open solutions to exchange health information, along with its Minneapolis, Minn.-based partner, ApeniMED, describes the strategies and activities necessary to advancing adoption of electronic health records (EHR) through the creation of a statewide health information network. Hielix is currently working with the state on a plan for making the HIE self-sustainable within by 2015.

In addition to better patient care, adoption of a statewide HIE will improve safety and efficiency by ensuring health information is available to healthcare providers at the point of care, while reducing medical errors and avoiding duplicative procedures. It will also improve coordination of care between hospitals, physicians, and other health professionals, providing consumers access to quality care and cost information, including their own health information, in an effort to encourage greater participation in their healthcare decisions.

Hielix has been retained by the state to establish an HIE business and financial sustainability plan that will identify short-and long-term strategies for raising revenue and becoming self-sustainable. Work is expected to be completed in mid- to late-summer (2011). The company is currently advising Mississippi, Iowa, and Guam in the same capacity.